From Iberia-Newfoundland to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea: A Project on the North Atlantic Evolution

Gwenn Peron-Pinvidic, Laurent Gernigon, and Carmen Gaina
NGU, Trondheim, Norway.

The North Atlantic is a key area to constrain and understand rifting development and subsequent spreading history in various setting that differ in the amount of rifting and magmatism. For the last two decades, both academics and industry have conducted a wealth of studies in this vast region. As a result, a database of available geological and geophysical data constitutes a solid basis for testing tectonic and geodynamic models related to rifting processes, the onset of breakup, and variations in seafloor spreading history.

The kinematics and geodynamics of the North Atlantic region led to the formation of magma-rich and magma poor margins that experienced different style and amount of rifting, involved the presence of a mantle anomaly, and has to explain various post-breakup phenomena that affected the oceanic basins and conjugate margins. Although models for the first order structural elements and features in the area have been already constructed more than 4 decades ago, new data reveal details that are not well explained by classical models.

Within this context, we propose to revisit the history of North Atlantic from the Azores Fracture zone to the Arctic by assembling the new data, re-interpret key areas and integrate the new results on rifted margin formation with the newly derived kinematic parameters. On the basis of long offset seismic data associated with gravimetric and magnetic measurements, we will establish an updated interpretation and structural analysis of key regional transects across the southern part of North Atlantic conjugate margins.

Our study will mainly focus on the Iberia-Newfoundland corridor and at a later stage we aim to integrate these results with new models for the Northeast Atlantic and Labrador Sea. Ultimately, we will explore the connections to the Arctic region for time intervals preceding the opening of Eurasia Basin.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90130©2011 3P Arctic, The Polar Petroleum Potential Conference & Exhibition, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 30 August-2 September, 2011.